Greneway School’s teachers and pupils are celebrating after the U12 boys reached their first ever national football cup final.

The Royston middle school has qualified for the ESFA Small Schools’ National Cup final after beating Dorset-based school Ferndown in the semi-final.

Despite Greneway winning through to the final they by no means had an easy ride, and they will now take on St Bede’s School from Manchester for the cup with the date and venue to be confirmed.

Yet it was Ferndown who went into half-time ahead 1-0 despite the best efforts of Greneway’s strong back four unit of Ross Gardner, Archie Massman-Brown, Rory Rees and Emre Kocak.

Greneway’s Adam McCormack had an effort disallowed for offside in the first period while Emre hit the post with flick header from a free-kick.

The second half was a different tale as the home side hit back when Billy Turkington won the ball at right-back and sent Rory on his way, the centre-back teeing up Will Blair to slot home the equaliser.

With the momentum now with them Greneway continued to apply the pressure and Adam linked up on the right wing with Thanushan Sathees who forced a save from the keeper.

The former then played the ball off the post where it then fell to Sathees who tapped home to give the hosts the lead.

Ferndown re-organised at this point and started to push forward but when they did manage to threaten Greneway goalkeeper Alex Moss was able to deal calmly with most that came his way.

With 15 minutes remaining Greneway were awarded a free-kick just 10 yards into their opponent’s half.

Archie Massman-Brown whipped the ball into the box deep to the back post only to see the keeper misjudge it and the ball fly into the top corner for 3-1.

Greneway then put away their fourth of the game to make sure of the win with just 10 minutes remaining as Will’s low and hard corner to the near post being deflected into his own net by a defender.

Ferndown continued to show great spirit and they added a second of their own before the final whistle, but it was Greneway who were through to the final.